Over the summer my refrigerator doors became uneven. They’d been off kilter for a while, but I hadn’t paid much attention. Who looks closely at their refrigerator? This meant when I closed the door one evening, the light bulb stayed on overnight and cooked everything inside like an Easy Bake Oven. The repair guy fixed it, but said it would only be a matter of time until it broke again.

It took six months before the freezer side of my GE side-by-side refrigerator, AKA the great satan of appliances, broke and melted a Peapod order’s worth of frozen goods. I ate two Skinny Cow’s and a strawberry fruit bar before throwing everything into a cooler, popping it onto my back porch and hoping the squirrels would stay out of it.

Then I asked Twitter for advice.

Usually, our Twitter account is a hopping spot for restaurant and dining trends, and we use it to share what we find. However we are also followed by chefs, refrigeration pros, environmentally concerned people, recent appliance purchasers, appliance sellers, manufacturers, and concerned diners. I received over 100 tweets on everything from refrigerator configurations, energy star ratings, features of Japanese appliances (which are so much cooler than our poor appliances), where to buy, recycling, delivery, how to find discounts, and whether or not to throw out my jar food.

I feel that my refrigerator disaster was more of an event because of everyone involved. As a thank you, I’d like to share a few things I learned along the way:

See if your past and/or current appliance manufacturer/supplier is on Twitter. I found they were much more responsive to my questions and obsessive worries at 140 characters at a time.

The fridge top/bottom freezer models are every bit as efficient as other models. And, as it turns out, very convenient.

Buy an Energy Star compliance refrigerator. Models can be checked at the EnergyStar.Gov site.

Google “discounts + the name of your appliance and/or store”. You never know what you’ll find.

Pay attention to on-site deals. I received a one time discount by joining my store’s online newsletter.

Make sure the space for your new refrigerator has the manufacturer’s recommended clearances. My old one didn’t as it turned out, so I couldn’t go by its size when shopping. Measure, measure, measure.

If all your appliances are white, don’t torture yourself with the shiny metallic ones unless you’re prepared to replace them all.

For the curious, I went with an Amana Easy Reach Bottom Mount Refrigerator.

Finally, I’d like share a special, unsolicited thanks to abtelectronics for an awesome online comparison tool, responsive Twitter representatives, speedy delivery and a stress-free installation. The squirrels went hungry because of you.

Hi! If you wish to keep up with the latest, subscribe to Chicago Bites and never miss a bite of the Chicago restaurant scene.